Hi Folx,

I found Oysters growing beautifully in a friends garden on a
beech log. see my photos in yahoo groups, mushrooms. They are quite tasty with a firm
texture.

We used a hollow steel pole sterilized with flaming alcohol to
extract some wood cores. These I have been mixing with fresh
coffee grounds but nothing exciting yet.
One bag of grounds had its wood core pressed up against the
plastic and white growth is visible, but not off into the grounds.
Upon inspection of the remaining refrigerated cores, some
show visible mycelial growth and I have attempted to start
another coffee culture.

Has anybody else experience with this technique? If so I would
like to hear about it here.

Much thanks in advance,

wumpsdad

Taking a wood core from a wild, fruiting log is new to me. Will wood from the core work? I thought it was mainly the sapwood layer that gets colonized & fruits.
I've seen pics of 3 or 4 inch PVC or ABS pipe filled with substrate. The pipes have many holes drilled in them for fruitbodies to grow out of.
I'm going to grow in a 5 gallon pail with holes drilled in it. Substrate will probably be straw.
Good luck with your grow.

Hi,
I have had luck going the other direction ,from indoor to outdoor.I don't see how you can avoid contamination.You would be able to do tissue to agar .On agar you would be able to isolate the mycelium from the contamination.Were the coffee grounds sterilized /Pasturized?The wood cores you are using are not . Seems like a breeding ground for ugly green stuff and others.If you took a spore print or have tissue I can create a clean culture for you.But keep in mind that wild cultures reguardless of how well they fruit in the wild ,may or may not produce under artifical conditions .I think the least expensive route would be to spend the 10-18 dollars and buy a known fruiting strain.
I am not known for taking the most traveled path ,the best learned lessons for me are when I was wrong .So there is no right way,just the way we choose and the other ones. Please let me know if I can help and keep us up to date Please.We are interested reguardless of the outcome.
thanks



Peace

Thanks for the replies folx... I thought I should add some more info:

These Mushies fruited after a period of around freezing temperatures, so they are a real winter mushroom and I thought perhaps that is why they were not growing indoors at room temperature.

the wood "cores" were actually from the layers just below the bark and -for the most part- running along the grain of the wood coz it seemed to me thats most likely where the mycelia would be growing, following the plants vascular tissue.

We opened the bark, and using an alcohol dipped and flamed metal tube, hammered it in a few centimeters then withdrew the core, then knocked it out with a similarly strerilized dowel into a new plastic sandwichbag that was kept clean. So, I was fairly confident that I had controlled all the variables I could to avoid contamination.

Any way, the MAJOR up date is that now that I have been inoculating my attempted coffee grounds cultures using wood with visible mycelia, I CAN see white mycelia beginning to spread thru the bag.

SO, should I shake it to spread it, or is that only if you are producing spawn?

the technique I am following is described here:

www.shiitake.de/eng/an_intro/an_kaffee/hauptteil_an_kaffee.html

The heat of the coffee making is apparently sufficient to sterilize the coffee, and I read somewhere recently that Pluerotus [oyster mushroom] produces antibiotics that inhibit potential competing organisms.

well, I shall get pics and if my daughter lets me near the computer, shall try to upload them here.

Thanks again and stay tuned,

Wumpsdad

Interesting technique, I may have to try it with all the coffee I drink. Are you going to stack a few more coffee layers, or are you set with your ammount. 1 mix would probably be OK to help spread the mycellium, then I'd probably leave it alone.

I just add coffee daily. I may ask at a local cafe if they could save me lots of coffee, then i could have lots on its way at one time.

As for shaking, I think I'll experiment and shake just 1 bag. I must remember to note which one, as I want to be as scientific as possible, since I am on a steep learning curve here.

Wumpsdad